Privacy by Design (PbD) is a term for a concept that was first originated by a joint team on “Privacy-enhancing technologies” back in 1995. PbD involves engineering something with privacy in mind from start to finish. Creating things with privacy sprinkled on in is a common analogy used when referencing Pbd. It is though that any product, service, or program will automatically be better because it was developed with privacy in mind.
However there is some vagueness that surrounds design with “privacy” being sprinkled in. Designers may only focus on one specific feature of privacy. We see this become more commonly in the form of Fair Information Practice Principles or disclosure placed on sites around the web. When designing with user privacy in mind there are a two main things designers need to keep in mind.
Volunteered Personal Data
Most personal data on websites is shares through forms filled out on a site or landing page. When designing with PbD in mind there is a multitude of user privacy questions one must ask themselves. How clear is it to the user what you will do with their personal data submitted? How is the user submitted notified of this? How is the information saved or distributed?
Automated Personal Data
Most of the data collection for advertising is collected through the use of cookies and other which is read by various platforms for advertising or data collection a website uses. There are locations outside the US that have rules set to track visitor consent and cookies.
Designing with Pbd in mind hold the website developer or designer responsible for the technology added to site therefore requiring the designer to potentially evaluate every aspect of technology infrastructure for user privacy.
How do you believe Pbd will impact the design and development process share your thoughts in the comments below.